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Local actions

Single module

ansible all -m setup -i 192.168.0.11,
  • ansible all execute ansible against host group 'all'
  • -m setup run the setup module to gather information about the hosts
  • -i 192.168.0.11, inline host list, must be comma-separated list of hosts so add training comma for a single host.

See Examples on the Ansible Setup module documentation.

Local actions

If you want to run a playbook and always do things locally, execute the playbook using --connection=local on the command line or connection: local on the play. This instructs ansible not to establish an SSH connection. This is useful if local loobpack is disabled eg. due to firewall rules or security groups.

To run a playbook which uses - hosts: all or similar, pass an inventory with just localhost or 127.0.0.1 and connection=local

ansible-playbook -i 127.0.0.1, --connection=local myplaybook.yaml

Alternatively, within a playbook with tasks to be executed remotely, include a section with 

- hosts: 127.0.0.1
  connection: local

More alternatives include using the local_action module which is a shorthand syntax for the delegate_to: 127.0.0.1 option. Combine these with run_once: true to ensure things running locally only happen once if that's what you want (like downloading a file once to then use Ansible to push the file to multiple hosts).

See Ansible documentation on Delegation This is useful to switch to running selected tasks locally in the middle of a role execution for example, where you cannot add hosts: directives to switch between local and remote execution.

- hosts: all
  gather_facts: false
  tasks:
  - name: ensure required parameters have been set
    fail: msg="Variable '{{ item }}' is not defined"
    when: item not in vars
    with_items:
      - public_key_file
      - host_user_id
    run_once: true
  - name: locate public key file
    local_action:
      module: stat
      path: "{{ public_key_file }}"
    register: keyFile
    run_once: true

Localhost and non-SSH connections

ansible_connection=local can be used in the inventory or on the command line to specify how Ansible will connect to the target host. In the case of local actions you can use ansible_connection=local as an inventory parameter with localhost to execute something locally even if you don't have a local loopback connection. The equivalent in a playbook is connection: local.

Note localhost will be recognised by Ansible as a valid host if the /etc/hosts file has an entry for 127.0.0.1 localhost or if localhost 127.0.0.1 ansible_connection=local is specified in the inventory, otherwise use 127.0.0.1.